Thomas Krabacher (Sacramento)

The 2013-2015 session of the California Legislature began. Following the November 2012 election, 39 of the 120 legislators, or nearly one-third, are new this year. This represents the largest number of new members in more than 45 years and resulted largely from redistricting and term limits. As of February 1st, approximately 200 hundred bills have been introduced in the Senate and Assembly. If past patterns are any indication, the number is likely to approach 2,000 by the time the process is finished.

Here is a list and brief description of bills introduced to date that relate to higher education and the CSU, and thus may be of interest to the Academic Senate and faculty members:

AB 46 (Pan, D): Would authorize ex officio members of the CSU Board of Trustees to designate a staff person to attend meetings in their absence. Re-introduced from previous session.

If past patterns hold, the majority of the proposed new legislation, perhaps two-thirds or more, will not be introduced until a day or two before deadline for doing so, February 22nd. A more complete list of proposed legislation of interest will be available at that time.

In the meantime, key committees in the Senate and Assembly will begin meeting, not to consider proposed bills, but to hold hearings on higher education-related issues.

February 19: Assembly Higher Education Committee (Das Williams, Chair): Information hearing to bring new committee members up to speed on higher education issues. Presenters are expected to include:

LAO representative(s) speaking on the Master Plan and the expected impact on of the state’s changing demographics;

Presentations by representatives of the three higher education segments;

Nancy Shulock (Director, Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy) speaking on current higher education issues in other states.